Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Clocktower Brewpub Westboro ~ Ottawa ON

The last time I went to the Clocktower Brew Pub, the year was 2009 and Dude was visiting from China. There was only like 2 locations, but they have expanded to 6 now. When I read people's comments on food forums for their favourite wings in Ottawa, Clocktower Brew Pub (CBP) consistently comes up.

When I tried it back in 2009, I thought the wings were pretty decent, but I think they did a menu revamp a few years back and I was up for seeing if they were the same, better or worse than before. I headed down to the Westboro location. It's too bad the weather wasn't so great today because they have a great patio.

Won't lie, the stars aligned and I was able to go for wings tonight, AND it was wing night. 50% off says my blurry photo.

This location is very modern, classy pub feel inside. Very clean. Very quiet. I asked my server Monica (who was great by the way) if it was always this quiet (especially for wing night) and she said in Westboro it doesn't get busy until around 7pm. For me I had a drink, my order taken and wings within about 15 minutes.

Regular price is pretty pricey at $15 for a lb (back in 2009 they were $9). They have a good list of sauces to choose from. Monica told me Malaysian was their hottest sauce, but I knew I was going to go with Korean BBQ already and didn't want double Asian influenced flavour, so I went with classic hot.

Another server brought me my wings, and I was pretty stoked by the two plates for feasting.

Apparently the CBP's 1lb of wings is about 8 wings. I will note that they did not come with blue cheese as stated on the menu, but that is probably due to it being wing night.

The wings themselves are dusted, then deep fried. This meant the skin was nice and crispy. The wings ranged from a medium to a large in length, and they were a very meaty wing. When I was at CBP back in 2009, the meat was super tough, but these were very tender and with the crispy skin made for an excellent textured wing. I felt chicken love.

The wings were tossed in just enough sauce. I like my wings with more sauce, but this was a good range that resulted in wet but not soggy wings.

Korean BBQ

When I saw Korean BBQ, I won't lie, I had a different kind of wing in mind. I was thinking deep red, sticky and spicy. These were not those wings, and that's ok and I was wrong to think they would be. They were sticky and sweet. The dominant flavour was sesame oil, which gave them a nutty flavour to balance out the sweet. These were very good, but I would love to add some heat.

Frank's Hot
Not very original, but a good classic hot wing. I enjoyed every bite, but I was a little surprised that CBP doesn't do their own homemade hot or suicide sauce.

FINAL SCORE:

I was really impressed with these wings. The were large, saucy, tasty and had an amazing texture. The sauces were good, but more so the crispy skin and tender meat made these wings top notch. My server Monica was great to boot. I will definitely be back in the future on wing night! 10.5/13